


Ice Cream Parlor

by frozenfairest



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 15:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6055998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenfairest/pseuds/frozenfairest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slight AU where Neo works at an ice cream shop and Roman is a persistent customer :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Cream Parlor

It never surprised anyone just how much Neopolitan loved ice cream. So, when she began working at her favorite ice cream parlor, her friends simply rolled their eyes and agreed to visit occasionally. Cinder came by only once, same with Mercury. Emerald, a secret fan of sweets, would come by every few weeks, but that was about it. Neo was lonely, even though she was surrounded by one of her favorite things.

At first, customers kept her occupied enough to hold her interest. But, their lack of diverse ice cream taste bored her quickly. Of course she enjoyed the classic flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, but she was tired of handing only those flavors out all the time. Why wasn’t anyone choosing some of the uncommon flavors? Neo herself had tried all of them at least once. Some were, admittedly, not great. Others, like their white chocolate and rose flavor, were surprisingly tasty.

One day, Neo was working a particularly slow shift. Only one person had come in during the two hours she had spent on the clock. Bored, the short girl texted her friends with little to no response back. They’re probably planning our next outing, Neo thought. She sighed. They didn’t always include her in their plans. Not that they didn’t like her or anything, but it just seemed like she was a…fourth wheel. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were inseparable. Neo was often more like an add-on to the group. Sometimes, Neo wished she had someone to do her own things with. Someone she could call “partner”.

The bell above the door jingled, and Neo looked up from her phone to see her second customer of the day. The first thing she noticed, besides his height (and Neo always noticed height), was his hair. It was bright orange and covered his right eye, giving him a mysterious look. That, and it definitely looked like he spent a lot of time styling it. More than what Neo did on her own hair.

They stared at each other for a few seconds until the man spoke up.

“Are you this friendly with everyone, or is this silent treatment just for me?” He asked, a smirk already on his face. Neo resisted frowning, and merely pointed to the many ice cream flavors in the freezers next to her. She didn’t talk very often, and when she did, it was only with people she really trusted and liked. It was a mix of shyness and trust issues. She didn’t even talk to Cinder, Emerald, or Mercury that much. She relied on her phone more than she would like to admit when it came to conversations. Most of the time customers would automatically say what they wanted, and Neo would deliver it and receive the payment all without any words moving past her lips. Today was apparently going to be different.

The orange-haired man shrugged at her actions and began to look over the flavors. Neo watched as he seemed to scrutinize every one with much more detail than was needed. She drummed her fingers on the counter lazily as she waited. Finally, he spoke after several minutes.

“Now, I consider myself a purveyor of fine things, which includes yourself,” he started, earning an eye-roll and unintended blush from Neo, “but I simply cannot decide on which flavor would be best for this occasion. How about you surprise me with one?” Neo stared him in the eyes for a moment, wondering if he was joking or not. Deciding that he did indeed mean it, she immediately grabbed a cone and went straight for the worst flavor they had: garlic flavored ice cream. She noticed the man look at her choice and visibly shudder. Neo smirked ever so slightly. She wasn’t about to have some random guy make fun of her with some cheap flirting and get away with it. She traded his ice cream for his credit card, and she took note of the name on it, “Roman Torchwick”. She couldn’t hide her curiosity about him, even if she did find him a bit annoying.

After she handed him back his card, he hesitantly licked the horrid ice cream. Neo’s smirk grew as she saw his eyes scrunch up from disgust. She expected him to try and spit it out, but to his credit he swallowed it and tried to play it off like it was nothing. He even insisted it was “interesting”, and he thanked her for “broadening his horizons”. Neo was quite irked about the whole thing. How could he stay so cool when she was obviously trying to drive him away?

He finished his cone in silence and bid her farewell afterwards. Neo figured she’d never see him again, and she actually felt a little sad about that. Yes, he was annoyingly smooth and calm and collected, but there was something about him that made Neo continue to think about him for the rest of the day. She actually wanted to see him again. She wanted to see if, maybe, she could get a different reaction out of him. Something that would make more sense to her and that would make her mind let him go.

 

Roman ended up coming in once more later that week. Then, the next week he came by three times. The third week after she originally met him, he was coming in every other day. The fourth week, Neo saw Roman every day. Every time, he would ask for Neo to surprise him, and every time she would try to gross him out with the worst flavors they had that day.

At first, Neo was infuriated to find that he reacted in a similar manner every time. He would always try to act suave and unaffected by whatever terrible ice cream he ate. After the first few visits, she found that she was curious about his reactions. She even found herself wanting to ask him why he insisted on faking his reactions, and why he kept coming back when she was obviously treating him poorly as a server. He always acted like a gentleman towards her, minus the direct flirting, and he never seemed angry with her for her actions. Weirdly enough, he almost treated her as well as, if not better than how Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury treated her. Sure, she was pretty good friends with them, especially Emerald, but there always seemed to be a gap between them and her. It was like they would keep her at arm’s length. Roman, a perfect stranger, seemed like he was trying to get Neo to warm up to him. And it was actually working.

Neo didn’t trust people very easily, but she found that she wanted to speak to Roman. The third week, Neo finally did. All she did was say a quick and quiet “thanks for coming” as Roman walked out the door, but she swore she saw him smiling as he walked down the street. She had to admit that she was pretty happy about it too. She felt surprisingly relieved to speak to someone again, even if she knew nothing more about him than his name. She felt happy knowing that she made him smile. It made her giddy, and she realized she wanted to make him smile again.

During a visit from him in the fourth week after they met, she wanted to greet him properly for the first time, but no words would come out. This wasn’t from fear or distrust though, it was from nervousness. Her shyness was kept her from greeting him, as did the butterflies that were beginning to flutter around in her stomach. Neo was great at faking a calm and relaxed front, but on the inside she was often nervous about something or other. She’d never felt comfortable around anyone so quickly, and she found herself attracted to him in that way. Also, she couldn’t help but admit that she thought he was handsome. It was always hard for her to refrain from staring at his bright green eyes as he spoke to her.

Roman noticed that Neo wanted to talk, and he watched as she slowly closed her open mouth, defeated before she really tried. He gave her a second, and then continued on like he hadn’t noticed at all. Neo appreciated that.

“I think you know the drill by now, ice cream girl. Surprise me,” he said. This time, Neo was going to reply, even if her face turned tomato red and she stuttered and looked like a fool.

“Neo,” she said. It was all she could manage. Roman tilted his head slightly in confusion.

“Excuse me?” Neo pointed to herself in response, unable to say anything else. Roman grinned as he understood what she meant. “Ah, so ice cream girl has a name. Neo. I like it.”

Neo smiled with him, and turned her eyes to the ice cream flavors to avoid looking at him while her face turned red. After a moment, she realized that she had given him all of the nasty flavors that they had stocked that day. She had nothing new to give him. She frowned, and Roman noticed.

“What’s wrong? Can’t pick one?” Neo’s frown deepened; she didn't want to disappoint him now, not after she had seen him smile again.

“Tell you what,” Roman continued, “I’ll skip the ice cream if you accompany me for a night out on the town. How about it Neo?”

Neo’s face turned as pink as her hair. She panicked, and grabbed the nearest cone and stuffed it with more scoops of ice cream than was generally allowed by the store. She didn’t even notice the flavor, she just knew that she had to make him not talk about such trivial, unnecessary, embarrassing things ever again. She held the ice cream out for him with her eyes glued to the floor. She could feel the smirk on his face, and she didn’t like it. Her eyes, had he been able to see them, were switching back and forth between pink and brown quickly without her control. She rarely lost her cool, but Roman was able to make her lose it so easily.

She focused for a few moments before she felt normal enough to look up. Roman still hadn’t taken the cone from her, and strawberry ice cream was beginning to drip onto her hand. Roman’s smirk changed into more of an amused smile.

“Aww, the ice cream matches your face now,” he said, teasing her as he took the cone from her. Neo immediately frowned. He’s doing it again! She couldn’t help but get riled up at his teasing. She knew that was what he wanted to see, too. She was playing right into his hands. No. Not this time. I’m gonna win this round.

With audacity that she never showed anywhere else but the battlefield, Neo quickly stood on her toes and leaned over the counter to kiss Roman on his stupid smiling face. She just wanted him to be the flustered one for once. She was tired of him affecting her so much!

His lips were softer than she expected, and that was what made her pull away as quickly as she had initiated the kiss. She realized that she did something she wouldn’t have normally done in any other situation, and that shocked her. But, before she could overthink the situation and feel embarrassed in any way, she noticed Roman’s reaction and felt a smirk appear on her face. This time, it was Roman who had the blush across his face. His mouth hung open ever so slightly, and he stared back at her with almost a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look. In that moment, Roman, not Neo, was the one who wasn’t able to speak. Taking full advantage of the opportunity, Neo shocked him even more as she spoke once more.

“Is that a good enough surprise for you?”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this prompt by OTPPrompts on Tumblr!  
> http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/139174450997/imagine-person-a-of-your-otp-works-at-an-ice-cream


End file.
